“Okay, well, drive safe.”
“Seriously, have fun.”
“I will. Bye.”
We hung up, and I dropped my phone back onto the pile of my clothes. Noah was slowly pulling the condom off and wrapping it up in some tissues as I crossed the room and climbed back into bed.
“So, what are we doing all night?” I asked him.
When he turned back and looked at me, he didn’t need to answer. I knew exactly what he wanted to do, and I was still desperate for it.
Chapter Fifteen
The wind whipped through my hair as Noah drove his car along Kelly Drive, heading back toward the city. He put the top down on probably one of the last comfortable days before winter, and I was leaning back in my seat, oversized sunglasses covering my eyes. I hadn’t felt more comfortable and relieved in years. Well, not since the night before, when Noah made me come more than I ever had in a single night. We fell asleep wrapped around each other, naked and sweating.
We didn’t talk much that night. The party continued down below us, but Noah didn’t seem to give a shit about the strangers in his dad’s house. Instead, he locked the door, and we practically mainlined each other’s bodies for hours.
I looked over at him and smiled.
“What’s up, dots?” he said, catching my eye.
He looked handsome with his hair messy, his black sunglasses and his stylish clothes. I had never met a man who dressed as well as Noah, and I suspected it was a product of his L.A. upbringing.
“Nothing. Just curious about you,” I said.
“What are you curious about?”
There were at least a thousand things I wanted to ask him, ranging from the mundane to the overly personal. I wanted to know every little thing, but I also knew that he probably wouldn’t give himself up so easily.
“Well, your tattoo, for starters.”
He grinned. “Which one, dots? Be a little more specific.”
“The one on your chest. What’s it say again?”
“It says, ‘Lux Orbis.’”
“Yeah, what is that?”
“It’s Latin for ‘Light of the World.’”
I screwed up my face. “Okay, that doesn’t tell me much.”
He laughed. “It’s something my mom used to say to me, when I was a little kid. She’d say, ‘Noah, you have a smile that can light up the world.’”
I blinked at him, surprised. He hadn’t spoken about his mother since that night at work, or at least he hadn’t mentioned her any more than in passing.
“That’s really nice,” I said.
“It’s one of the few things I remember about her. I guess it’s a kind of tribute.”
That wasn’t what I had expected.
“What else do you remember about her?”
He shrugged, his eyes on the road as we moved along the curves and bends. He was driving surprisingly slow, for a guy with a pretty expensive-looking convertible, and he had even made sure that I buckled up.
“Not much, honestly. She used to read to me, when I was really young, from this weird book with all these different stories. I can’t remember the name of it. Also, I remember her making me breakfast in the morning. And pulling the comforter off of me when I refused to get out of bed.”
I laughed, imagining a young Noah acting like a bratty kid.
He grinned at me. “That’s pretty much it. She died when I was too young to really remember her.”
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“Don’t be. It was a long time ago.”
“Do you think you’d get along better with your dad if she were still alive?”
“I don’t know. Probably not. I think he’s just fundamentally fucked up, in an irredeemable kind of way.”
“That must be really hard.”
I couldn’t imagine living without a support system. My mom had always been there for me, my best friend and my biggest cheerleader. And although my dad was distant and sometimes cold, he was always kind to me, and always had my best interests in mind.
“It was. My granddad was always around for me, though, especially when shit got really bad.”
“Really, you’re close with him?”
He nodded. “Yeah, he’s why I moved out here. He lives in a long term care place, out where we just came from.”
I blinked. He hadn’t mentioned a grandfather before.
“Do you see him often?” I asked.
“Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday,” he said.
Noah Carterson, playboy and asshole and dutiful grandson.
“That’s really good of you.”
“Yeah, well, he didn’t abandon me when I was a real piece of shit, so it’s the least I can do for him. Especially since daddy dearest rarely gets out here.”